Six Degrees of Separation: From Prophet Song to Rachel's Holiday

  

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is the 2023 Booker Prize winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. I have not read that book, but from what I gather it is a dystopian novel set in Ireland and written by an Irish author. That novel follows one woman trying to keep her family together as the country moves towards totalitarianism. This sounds like a very good book and I may want to read it some day. 

The books that I have linked to for my Six Degrees chain are all set primarily in Ireland, and are written by Irish authors. 

1st degree:

My first link is to an Irish crime fiction book on my TBR pile – Winterland by Alan Glynn. From the book dust jacket: "The worlds of business, politics and crime collide in contemporary Dublin when two men with the same name, from the same family, die on the same night - one death is a gangland murder, the other, apparently, a road accident. Was it a coincidence? That's the official version of events. But when a family member, Gina Rafferty, starts asking questions, this notion quickly unravels."

2nd degree:

Winterland can be described as dark and gritty, and that leads me to The Guards, the first of the Jack Taylor novels written by Ken Bruen. The series is set in Galway, Ireland. Jack Taylor was in the Garda Síochána (the police force of the Republic of Ireland), and thrown out because of serious problems with alcohol. He becomes, almost accidentally, a finder, a sort of private detective. One element of the writing is frequent mentions of books, especially mystery novels, and quotes interspersed here and there, often with no apparent connection to the story.  The mystery portion of the plot is slight. The emphasis is more on Jack, his relationships, his life, his battle with alcohol. It isn't a happy book, but it isn't depressing either.

3rd degree:

Like The Guards, the The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black is more of a character study than a mystery. And beautifully written. Set in Ireland in the 1950s, it is the 2nd book about Quirke, a pathologist working in a hospital in Dublin. Deirdre Hunt died and the assumption is that it was suicide; Quirke suspects that this is not correct, so he spends some time looking into her death. Dierdre also went by the name Laura Swan and ran a beauty salon, The Silver Swan. In looking into Deirdre's death, Quirke discovers that his daughter Phoebe has some connections to that salon also, and he becomes more interested. After reading this book, I was hooked on the series.

4th degree:

Benjamin Black is a pseudonym used by John Banville for some of his crime fiction books. In 2020, John Banville published Snow, set in Ireland in 1957. The Catholic Church is powerful in Ireland at that time. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been sent to County Wexford to investigate the death of a priest, found dead in the home of a well-known Protestant family. DI Strafford is also Protestant, an unusual occurrence in the Garda. He finds himself in an uncomfortable position, isolated in the small community by the accumulating snow and getting little cooperation from the family or the townspeople. 

 

5th degree:

My next link also involves Garda detectives. The Secret Place is the 5th book in the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. It is set in a girl's boarding school and the investigation takes place in one day. Holly Mackey, daughter of a policeman and student at St. Kilda's, brings a new piece of evidence related to the death of a teenage boy to Stephen Moran, a detective in the Cold Cases division who would really rather be in the Murder Squad. Stephen takes the information to Detective Antoinette Conway in the Murder Squad. They pursue the investigation. Tana French's mysteries are very good, but none end happily, and they usually leave me a bit down.

6th degree:

To be honest, most of the books in my chain are dark and bleak. For my last link, I am switching to the opposite. Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes is from my TBR pile. One Goodreads review described it as "dark, depressive, and sad" which is strange for a book categorized mainly as chick lit. Although the story is about a woman who returns to her home town of Dublin and goes into rehab for drug addiction, I believe this is handled with humor and wit. It is the 2nd book in the Walsh Family series; I read Watermelon and liked it, so I am expecting to like this one too, although it is close to 600 pages long.

In my Six Degrees I stayed in Ireland, although two of the books do go back to the 1950s.  If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

Have you read any of these books or authors?

The next Six Degrees will be on April 5, 2025, and the starting book will be Salman Rushdie’s memoir, Knife.

Top Ten Tuesday list: Mysteries with an Academic Setting

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a School Freebie (come up with a topic that somehow ties to school/education). I am keeping it simple, a list of my favorite books with a school setting.

And here's my list:

Murder is Academic by Christine Poulson

Poulson set her debut novel at St. Etheldreda's College at Cambridge. Cassandra James is a professor of English, and she finds the head of her department drowned in a pool, surrounded by exam papers. In Murder is Academic, in addition to the college setting, we have plagiarism, séances, and the pressures to publish research. And the characters are well-done and believable. The UK title of this book is Dead Letters. Published in 2002. She has published two more books in this series and three books in the Katie Flanagan series.

The Secret Place by Tana French

This is the fifth book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. The setting is primarily a girls' boarding school in the suburbs of Dublin. The case is the death of a teenage boy who was found murdered, a year before, on the grounds of the girl's school. The action all takes place in one day. The story is told in alternating narratives. The first narrative is from the point of view of a policeman working on the case. The second narrative (in third person present tense) follows the eight girls, boarders at the school, in the year leading up to the crime. Published in 2014.

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

This novel in the Hercule Poirot series is set primarily at the prestigious Meadowbank School for Girls in England, but the action begins with international intrigue in the fictional country of Ramat. I loved the girls school setting, but the espionage story was a bit too unrealistic for me. Julia Upjohn and Jennifer Sutcliffe, two students at the school, are very good characters, and I liked their letters home which moved the plot along. Julia is clever and notices things, Jennifer is more focused on herself, but together they are a good pair. Published in 1959.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

There are three main characters who share the narration of the story. All three are interesting, with very different points of view on life. Clare is an English teacher at a high school; a close friend at work has been brutally murdered. Harbinder Kaur is a policewoman working on the investigation of the death of Ella Elphick, Clare's friend. Georgia is Clare's fifteen-old-daughter, who is a student at the high school that her mother teaches at.  Some of Clare's sections are told via entries from her diary, which does play an integral part in the story. Published in 2018.

Quoth the Raven by Jane Haddam

Quoth the Raven is the 4th book in a 20-book series about Gregor Demarkian, retired FBI agent, living in Philadelphia. This one is set in rural Pennsylvania at a small college, where Gregor has been invited to give a lecture. Halloween is a major event at the college and there will be the annual lighting of the bonfire the same night. The story takes place in the two days before that event; thus this is the perfect book for fall and the Halloween season. I liked the academic setting, and the mix of students and faculty as characters. Published in 1991.

Publish or Perish by Margot Kinberg

This is the first book in Margot Kinberg's Joel Williams series. The setting is academia: a university in Pennsylvania. I know that the academic setting is a competitive one, although I have no first-hand knowledge of this. Williams is an ex-policeman who now teaches in the university's Department of Criminal Justice. There is a good subplot about a group of students investigating the murder. Published in 2008.

A Killing Spring by Gail Bowen

A Killing Spring is the 5th book in a mystery series about Joanne Kilbourn, a political analyst and university professor who gets involved in criminal investigations. The setting is Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. This story begins as the head of the School of Journalism at the university where Joanne Kilbourn teaches is found dead, in embarrassing circumstances. Then a student in Joanne's class complains of sexual harassment and stops coming to class. Published in 1996. 

The Shortest Day by Jane Langton

This is the 11th book in the Homer Kelly series. This story is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Homer and Mary Kelly are teaching a class at Harvard University. This is a quirky and humorous mystery in an academic setting. Mary is participating in the annual Christmas Revels when a young singer in the event dies in an automobile accident. When other deaths follow, Homer resists getting involved, even though he was once a homicide detective. The author illustrated the story with her own pen and ink drawings. Published in 1995.

Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh

The story starts with the disappearance of a young female college freshman, Lowell Mitchell. The college she attends is in Bristol, Massachusetts, a fictional small town near Boston, Massachusetts. She goes missing on a Friday in early March 1950 after attending a morning class. Once the college dean ascertains that she is missing, the police are called in to investigate. The small police department in Bristol has less resources and less men to assign to the case than a big city police force. The press and the public are soon pressuring them for a solution, and Lowell's distraught parents also come to town. Published in 1952.

A Novena for Murder by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

This is a very cozy mystery starring a nun as an amateur sleuth. Sister Mary Helen has retired at 75 and is sent to Mt. Saint Francis College for Women in San Francisco. Shortly after she arrives the body of a professor at the school is found, following an earthquake. The police blame the wrong person, in Sister Mary Helen's opinion, so it is up to her to find out what happened. The setting in San Francisco is nicely done, and there is an interesting subplot involving Portuguese immigrants who have been helped to enter the US and are now students or workers at the college.

Reading Summary for March 2021

I read eight books in March, in addition to short stories from various sources. One of the books was nonfiction, and the remaining were crime fiction. Of the crime fiction books I read in March, four were vintage mysteries (before 1960) and three were contemporary novels. This was another month where I read three books by Agatha Christie, all in the Hercule Poirot series. I am very close to finishing all the novels in that series. 

Nonfiction / Self Help

Essential: Essays by The Minimalists (2012) by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus

This book could be considered self help or personal development, with a little bit of philosophy thrown in. The authors of this book have a blog, The Minimalists, which has been going for over ten years now. If you are at all interested in minimalism, this book may be interesting. 

Crime Fiction

Cat Among the Pigeons (1959) by Agatha Christie

This novel in the Hercule Poirot series is set primarily at the prestigious Meadowbank School for Girls in England, but the action begins with international intrigue in the fictional country of Ramat. I enjoyed the story. My review is here.

Three Act Tragedy (1934) by Agatha Christie

This is the ninth Hercule Poirot novel, following Murder on the Orient Express. There is a large cast of characters, but the main ones are the renowned actor, Sir Charles Cartwright, now retired; Mr. Satterthwaite, his friend; Dr. Bartholomew Strange, a specialist in nervous disorders; and Miss "Egg" Lytton Gore. The gentlemen are all older; Miss Lytton Gore is a much younger friend. The structure is like a play; the first act is Suspicion, the second act is Certainly, and the third act is Discovery. This began too slowly for me but I ended up liking it overall.

Dead Man's Folly (1956) by Agatha Christie

This was the third Hercule Poirot novel that featured Ariadne Oliver, the mystery writer, as a character. In this case, she has been invited to run a Murder Hunt game for the village summer fête, and Poirot is invited to give the prizes away. Miss Oliver has a key role in the story, but she shows up at the beginning, fades into the background for a good while, and then comes back to help a bit at the end. As always, a good read, but not one of Christie's best.

I Hear the Sirens in the Street (2013) by Adrian McKinty

This is the second book in the Sean Duffy series set in Belfast in the early 1980's, during the Irish Troubles. I read this for Reading Ireland Month at 746books. Based on these two books, it is a very good series. My review is here.

The Secret Place (2014) by Tana French

This is the fifth book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and my second read for Reading Ireland Month.  I have enjoyed all the books in the series, so far. My review is here.

Stage Fright (2003) by Christine Poulson

This is the second book in a series about academic Cassandra James, the head of the English Department at Cambridge University's St. Ethelreda's College. In this one, the story centers around a stage production of East Lynne. I loved this story; the characters are fantastic, the pacing is good, and there is just enough tension. See my review here.

The Rubber Band (1936) by Rex Stout

This is the third book in the Nero Wolfe series, and I have read it several times. This time I read it in preparation for the 1936 Club and will be reviewing it soon.

The Secret Place: Tana French

From the book cover:

The photo on the card shows a boy who was found murdered, a year ago, on the grounds of a girls' boarding school in the leafy suburbs of Dublin. The caption says I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM. 

Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to get a foot in the door of Dublin's Murder Squad–and one morning, sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey brings him this photo. "The Secret Place," a board where the girls at St. Kilda's School can pin up their secrets anonymously, is normally a mishmash of gossip and covert cruelty, but today someone has used it to reignite the stalled investigation into the murder of handsome, popular Chris Harper. Stephen joins forces with the abrasive Detective Antoinette Conway to find out who and why.

 

Holly Mackey, daughter of a policeman and student at St. Kilda's, brings the new piece of evidence to Stephen Moran, a detective in the Cold Cases division who would really rather be in the Murder Squad. Stephen and Holly have a previous relationship from an earlier case that her father, Frank Mackey, was personally involved in.

Stephen takes the information to Conway in the Murder Squad, who was the primary on the case the year before. They immediately go to St. Kilda's, and start interviewing the girls who had access to The Secret Place at the relevant time. 

The action all takes place in one day. The story is told in alternating narratives. The first is in first person, from the point of view of Stephen Moran. The second narrative (in third person present tense) follows the eight girls, boarders at the school, in the year leading up to the crime and all the way up the point where Holly turns in the photo.

First I will start with what I liked about the book. I especially like the characters in French's books; sometimes it seems like the character exploration is just as important as solving the mystery. Most of the eight students that are important to the story are interesting. Scary kids, not what I remember teenage girls being like when I was in a very non-posh high school in Alabama (in the 1960s), but still interesting. Miss McKenna, headmistress of the school, is a good character. Her primary concern is the reputation of the school, and she is having a very bad day. We don't see a lot of her, but she is important to the plot.

The depiction of the two detectives is very well done. Stephen Moran is the narrator of the portion of the story about the investigation and the interrogations. We know about his goals, his fears, and his good and bad points (at least from his point of view). The reader knows less about Antoinette Conway because we are getting only Stephen's assessment of her and the situation, but she is an intriguing character and she grew on me. And then there is Holly's father, Frank, a policeman in the Undercover Division, who becomes involved later in the story. He is quite a character.

The school setting is excellent. The school takes boarders, the girls board four to a room, and there are two sets of four very close friends that are under suspicion. The girls' families are mostly very well-to-do and the girls are used to getting what they want. 

The rest of my comments are more neutral than negative...

I feel emotionally wrung out when I finish books by Tana French. The ending is usually a downer. The murder is solved, life goes on, but no one ends up happy at the end. That is OK now and then but I would not want a steady diet of that kind of reading.

This book was about 450 pages and took me five days to read. The pacing was good but I had to really focus to keep up with all the characters and the two alternating narratives. 

I do have a bone to pick with the author related to the introduction of some supernatural elements that never seemed to go anywhere or fit into the book. That distracted me and nearly took me out the story completely. However, some readers liked that aspect a lot.

Yet, regardless of any criticisms I have, overall this was a good book, rewarding and with good character development. I liked it a lot. I think I would enjoy rereading this someday. 

See Moira's review at Clothes in Books, John's review at Goodreads, Barbara Fister's review at Reviewing the Evidence.

This is my second read for Reading Ireland Month at Cathy's blog at 746books.

 -----------------------------

Publisher: Viking, 2014
Length:    452 pages
Format:    Hardcover
Series:     Dublin Murder Squad
Setting:    Dublin, Ireland
Genre:     Police Procedural
Source:   Purchased in August 2020.

Bookshelf Traveling for Insane Times No. 5

Judith at Reader in the Wilderness hosts this meme: Bookshelf Traveling For Insane Times. The idea is to look through a bookshelf or a bookcase or stacks of books and share some thoughts on the books. And of course you can be inventive and talk about books in any context.

I have returned to looking through boxes of uncatalogued books, mostly purchased at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, in 2018 or 2019. I am pretty sure the books I found this week are books from the 2019 sale. Only purchased about 6 months ago, yet still I am surprised by some of them.

Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin

I have been interested in this book for years but never went out of my way to find a copy. It was originally published in 2007 in Sweden, but published in English translation in 2008. Publishers Weekly calls it a "deeply disturbing debut" but reviews I have read are very positive. It takes place on the Baltic island of Öland and is book 1 in the Öland quartet. The subject is the disappearance of a five-year-old boy 20 years previously.

Dark Fire by C. J. Sansum

This is the second book in the Matthew Shardlake series, published in 2004. The first book is Dissolution, in which Shardlake is a lawyer helping Thomas Cromwell to close down the monasteries in England. Shardlake is sent to investigate the murder of a royal commissioner living in one of the monasteries. The history of this time (1537) is very interesting. In the past I had not read much historical fiction set before the 1900s. Dark Fire is set in 1540 and I am not sure where it takes Shardlake but I liked the first one so I expecting this one to be very good too.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

This is Carson McCuller's first novel, published in 1940 when she was just twenty-three, and it is on my classics list. I don't know much about it and I prefer to leave it that way until I read it. 

The Witch Elm by Tana French

I had completely forgotten that I had bought this book at the sale. It is French's first standalone novel, published in 2018, after publishing six books in the Dublin Murder Squad series. I have read four books in that series and liked them all, and I had planned to hold off on this one until I read the last two in the series. But I found The Trespasser (book 6 in the series) and The Witch Elm at the book sale but not The Secret Place (book 5). So I may break down and read this book sooner than planned.

My Reading in July 2019

I read a lot of books in July. Of the fifteen books I read, ten were crime fiction, although one of the graphic novels could be placed in that genre and the nonfiction book I read was mystery reference. Two graphic novels, both very good. And two older straight fiction books.

Mystery reference

Hardboiled, Noir and Gold Medals (2017) by Rick Ollerman

The subtitle of this wonderful mystery reference book is "Essays on Crime Fiction Writers from the '50s Through the '90s." Rick Ollerman has written several introductions to omnibus editions of works published by Stark House, and he shares several of them here, along with other essays or articles written for his book. Authors covered include: Peter Rabe, Donald Westlake, Ed Gorman, James Hadley Chase, Wade Miller, and Charles Williams. An entertaining and informative book.

Fiction

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith

This is a well-known and enduring classic story of poverty in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. The story of Francie Nolan, her parents, and her brother Neeley begins in 1912.  While reading When Books Went to War, I was surprised to learn of this book's huge popularity when distributed as an Armed Services Edition. I am very glad I finally read this book but I found it very hard to read.

Benighted (1927) by J.B. Priestley

This book is sometimes described as horror or psychological terror, but it is not very horrific. It is atmospheric and a good read. And short. Benighted was adapted to film by James Whale, as The Old Dark House in 1932. Introduction by Orrin Grey. My thoughts are here.

Graphic Novels

Aetheric Mechanics (2008) by Warren Ellis (Writer),  Gianluca Pagliarini (Artist)

This is really a graphic novella at only 40 pages. It is a wonderful mish mash of mystery (Sherlock Holmes style), alternate history, science fiction. The line drawings by Gianluca Pagliarani are lovely.

Ignition City (2009) by Warren Ellis (Writer),  Gianluca Pagliarini (Artist)

This could also fit right into the crime fiction section, although it is also science fiction. Mary Raven is a grounded space pilot who finds out that her father has died in Ignition City. She goes there to find out who killed him. Ignition City is a spaceport filled with thinly disguised versions of older space heroes.  I enjoyed this one a lot, even I didn't get a lot of the references. I was surprised that the illustrator was the same as for Aetheric Mechanics, since the artwork is completely different. 

Crime Fiction

Might as Well Be Dead (1956) by Rex Stout

This is a Nero Wolfe novel, published in 1956. The case starts as a search for a missing person, then later turns into a hunt for a murderer. This time Nero Wolfe solves the case from the brownstone, while  Archie Goodwin and the freelance investigators do the legwork. My review here.

Pearls Before Swine (1945) by Margery Allingham

This is the 12th book in the Albert Campion series, also published as Coroner's  Pidgin. This one is set in wartime London, towards the end of the war. Campion has just returned from years on an assignment, and gets pulled into a very strange case. My review here.

The Keeper of Lost Causes (2007) by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Carl Mørck has returned to work as a homicide detective after being on leave following an incident which ended badly, leaving him nearly dead. Another policeman was killed and the third was left paralyzed. Moerk feels guilty and responsible, has lost his  edge and is not keeping up with his work. His boss plots to put him in charge of a new department to follow up on high profile cold cases and use most of the funds for the new department to shore up the main Homicide area. This is the first book in the Department Q series, and was published in the UK as Mercy. Set in Denmark. Carl and his assistant Assad are both unusual characters and I hope to continue the series.

Allmen and the Dragonflies (2011) by Martin Suter

This is an unusual crime fiction novel set in Switzerland. Translated from German by Steph Morris. I enjoyed it very much. My review here.

China Lake (2002) by Meg Gardiner

Evan Delaney series, book #1. I bought this book because it was set in California and a large portion of it takes place in  Santa Barbara. I had also heard good things about the author. The book was a page turner but it was too much of a thriller for me and I had problems with the characters. I still have Mission Canyon, the 2nd book in the series, and Mission Canyon is the part of the Santa Barbara area that we lived in the first six years in California. So I am sure I will read that one too.

Broken Harbor (2012) by Tana French

The fourth book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series features Mike "Scorcher" Kennedy, who had a minor role in Faithful Place, and his new partner, rookie detective Richie Curran. See my thoughts on the book here.

Colonel Butler's Wolf (1972) by Anthony Price

I had just purchased this book when I learned that the author, Anthony Price, had died recently, at the age of 91. This is the third book in the David Audley / Colonel Butler series, a cold war espionage series set in the UK and usually featuring some historical element (in this case, Hadrian's Wall). Colonel Butler was a secondary character in the first two books, but this book is told from his point of view. David Audley is the central character throughout the series, but each book is different and in this book he has a smaller although significant role. I am truly enjoying this series.

The Disciple of Las Vegas (2011) by Ian Hamilton

Ava Lee series, book #2. This book is similar to China Lake by Meg Gardiner, also read this month. Both books are thrillers, and focus on action and pacing. They both have interesting settings (at least for me). The difference is the characters. In The Disciple of Las Vegas, the main characters are interesting, professional, low key -- highly focused on the job at hand. I enjoyed the book throughout and look forward to continuing the series. However, I will admit to being bothered by some distasteful and graphic violence.

The Summons (1995) by Peter Lovesey

The third book in the Peter Diamond series, set mostly in Bath, England. The series started in 1991, and the 18th book was published this year. Goodreads describes Peter Diamond as "a modern-day police detective in Bath". In the early books he is most definitely not interested in modern day techniques, and I look forward to seeing how that changes. In this book, he has not been working as a policeman for a while, and Bath CID is forced to ask him to return to help with a case.

Dance Hall of the Dead (1973) by Tony Hillerman

This book was my introduction to Hillerman's series of books featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. The first three books featured Joe Leaphorn, the next three books were focused on Jim Chee, and the remaining books were about both of them. This is the 2nd book in the series and I am glad I started the series here. This was one of my favorite reads this month.

Broken Harbor: Tana French

The fourth book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series features Mike "Scorcher" Kennedy, who had a minor role in Faithful Place, and his new partner, rookie detective Richie Curran. Their new assignment takes them to the scene of a multiple homicide. And the Brianstown housing development just happens to be on the site of a spot where Scorcher's family vacation for many years when he was a child. At that time the area was called Broken Harbor.

From the dust jacket of my hardback edition:

On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care. 

At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half-dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointed at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spain’s computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks. 

There are two stories here: the crime, the murder of three members of a family; and the background story of Scorcher Kennedy. As Scorcher and Richie dig deeper into the investigation, they run into many inconsistencies and learn that the face that the family presented to the world was far from the truth. They slowly find their way to the truth.

Scorcher narrates the story, and the picture that the reader gets of him is very different from how he was portrayed in Faithful Place, which was told from Frank Mackey's point of view. Scorcher has always prided himself on being a top-notch detective and sticking by the rules. He wants (and needs) to solve the case quickly but not at the expense of possibly charging the wrong person with murder. So he and Richie use all the resources of the Murder Squad to find out what was really going on in the last few weeks of Frank Spain's life. Could he have murdered his children and tried to kill his wife?


This is the fourth Dublin Murder Squad story that I have read. As usual I found the story compelling and the characters very well developed. I especially liked the portrayals of the two detectives and their developing relationship. The story of Scorcher's early family life is slowly revealed, and impacts on this case, although there is no connection to the crime.

I love Tana French's writing. I usually shy away from extremely long books but I don't mind the length in her books; this one was 450 pages. One thing about this book that I had a problem with... The ending of the book is downbeat, quite bleak. So if you are looking for a book with a more positive outlook, this isn't it. It seemed to me to be a realistic picture of an investigation, showing the wear and tear such work can have on the policemen involved.

See these reviews:
At Mystery Scene
John Grant's review at Goodreads
Rob Kitchin's review at The View from the Blue House

 -----------------------------

Publisher: Viking, 2012
Length:    450 pages
Format:    Hardcover
Series:     Dublin Murder Squad
Setting:    Dublin, Ireland
Genre:     Police Procedural
Source:   Purchased at the Planned Parenthood book sale, Sept. 2018.

20 Books of Summer 2019

This is my fourth year of joining in the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. It is very flexible. You can go for 15 Books of Summer or 10 Books of Summer if 20 is too much to commit to. Books can be substituted along the way. And that is fine.

The event is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. The description is here. This is her list.

This year, for this event, summer starts June 3rd and ends September 3rd. I finished my list last summer so I will go into this optimistically. Of course, part of it is reviewing the books and I did not get all of them reviewed last year, but still, I enjoyed reading them all.

Here is my list:

The Keeper of Lost Causes (2007) by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Set in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first book in the Department Q series.

Pearls Before Swine (1945) by Margery Allingham

The twelfth book in the Albert Campion series. I am rereading this series in order.

 Transcription (2018) by Kate Atkinson

I like this author's books. I don't know a lot about this book (and I want to keep it that way) but it does involve espionage, a favorite subject of mine.

Perfect Gallows (1988) by Peter Dickinson

Peter Dickinson is one of my favorite authors. This book takes the reader back to a death in World War II, with a framing story set in 1988.

Crooked Heart  (2014) by Lissa Evans

Historical fiction about the homefront in the UK during World War II. Ten-year-old Noel Bostock is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz.

Out of the Deep I Cry (2004) by Julia Spencer Fleming

Third book in the Reverend Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. Clare Fergusson left her job as a military helicopter pilot to become an Episcopal priest in the small town of Miller's Kill, New York. Russ Van Alstyne is the police chief. An interesting combination.

City of Shadows (2006) by Ariana Franklin

Set in 1920s and 1930s Berlin, Germany. Features a policeman, Schmidt, and Esther, a Jewish refugee from Russia.

Death in Amsterdam (1962) by Nicholas Freeling

First novel in a mystery series set in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Main characters are Piet Van Der Valk, a police inspector, and his wife Arlette, a gourmet cook.

Broken Harbor (2012) by Tana French

Fourth book in the Dublin Murder Squad series set in Ireland. Each book features a different detective in the squad.

China Lake (2002) Meg Gardiner

The author is originally from Santa Barbara, California; the female protagonist of this novel, Evan Delaney, is a lawyer in Santa Barbara. So I have to give the series a try.

Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons

From the description at goodreads: "Winner of the 1933 Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, COLD COMFORT FARM is a wickedly funny portrait of British rural life in the 1930s."

Death Knocks Three Times (1949) by Anthony Gilbert

Anthony Gilbert (pseudonym of Lucy Beatrice Malleson) was an English crime writer. The Arthur Crook series is comprised of over 50 novels, and this one is #21.

The Disciple of Las Vegas (2011) by Ian Hamilton

The second book in the Ava Lee series, starring a young Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant.

London Rules (2018) by Mick Herron

The fifth book in the Slough House espionage series; I read Spook Street in May, loved the book, and am eager to get to the next in the series

Innocence or, Murder on Steep Street (1985)
by Heda Margolius Kovály

Mystery novel set in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the 1950s.

Friends and Traitors (2017) by John Lawton

I read the seventh book in this series in 2012. Now I want to read the most recent novel in the series.

The Summons (1995) by Peter Lovesey

The third book in the Peter Diamond series. 

Station Eleven (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel

I read two post-apocalyptic novels in May, now I want to read another one. 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith

An American classic about a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the early 20th century.

The Axeman's Jazz (1991) by Julie Smith

The second in Smith's Skip Langdon series. Set in New Orleans.

Allmen and the Dragonflies (2011) by  Martin Suter

I don't know much about this book except that it is about an art heist set in Switzerland.

European Reading Challenge 2018: Wrap Up Post

This is my wrap up post for the 2018 European Reading Challenge. The goal was to read and review five books set in different European countries and by different authors. I enjoyed reading these books and will be signing up for this challenge in 2019.

My biggest problem is getting books reviewed but I made an effort to get most of the books that I read for this challenge reviewed.  I have linked the title to posts if I wrote one, otherwise I have included a short summary and comments.

The Whip Hand by Victor Canning (Croatia)
The hero, Rex Carver, visits many countries in this adventure, but he spends a good amount of time in Yugoslavia (1960s) in the area which is now Croatia.

Lumen by Ben Pastor (Poland)

The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall (Germany)

Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman (Hungary)
The first part of the book is set in Salzburg, Austria; 2nd and 3rd parts are mainly in Budapest, Hungary. Also some of the 2nd part takes place in Israel.

The Black Seraphim by Michael Gilbert (UK)

A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson (Portugal)

Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum (Norway)
The story begins with a woman discovering a body while walking on a river bank with her young daughter. The woman is Eva Magnus, and soon we learn that she is also linked to another unsolved case, the murder of a prostitute.  The police get to work on figuring out how the two cases are related. I enjoyed this first book in the Inspector Konrad Sejer series very much, although I found the ending quite sad.

Death of a Nationalist by Rebecca Pawel (Spain)

The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri (Italy)
The second Inspector Montalbano mystery, set in Italy, part of a long-running series. Montalbano finds a cave filled with artifacts and the bodies of two young lovers who have been dead for 50 years. I had read the previous book in the series but had forgotten how much of an independent loner the inspector is. The story is very complex.

Faithful Place by Tana French (Ireland)
Set in Dublin, this novel features Frank Mackey, a Dublin detective working in the Undercover department. Frank returns to his old neighborhood and the family he left 22 years earlier to investigate a possible crime. Another great story by this author, my favorite of her books ... so far.



Night Rounds by Helene Tursten (Sweden)

Blood & Rubles by Stuart M. Kaminsky (Russia)

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker (France)
The first installment in a wonderful new series (to me) that follows the exploits of Benoît Courrèges (Bruno for short), a policeman in a small French village. This seemed like a fantasy because the life in the village is (at least on the surface) so rustic. That description makes it sound on the cozy side, and it is not that at all. Although this book is heavy on the details of Bruno's past and the setting of the series, I am sure I am going to enjoy more of these books.

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Denmark)

Reading Summary for June 2018

In 2018, I have been reading more each month (than in previous years) and it still amazes me. This month I read 10 books and they were all good reads. And some of them were spectacular. As usual, most of the books were crime fiction, but I did read two books that were not mystery or crime related. Eight of these books were books on my 20 Books of Summer list.

My two non-mystery reads in June were ...

Auntie Mame (1955) by Patrick Dennis

A story about a young boy raised by his aunt after his father dies. The book reads like connected short stories, each highlighting a different stage in the boy's growing-up years.  It is wacky and entertaining, definitely not my usual fare, and I enjoyed almost every story. The story has been adapted for film and as a play.

Tales of the City (1978) by Armistead Maupin

I really have no idea how I missed this series over the years. Set in San Francisco, California, and very close to the year I visited the city the first time. Not mystery related, so that probably has something to do with it. I did learn about the books in 2014 at Clothes in Books, yet still wasn't tempted to try one. This month the time was right. It took me a while to get into the story, but I ending up loving the book and planning to read more in the series.

And now on to the eight crime fiction reads:

The Bone Garden (2003) by Kate Ellis

This is the fifth book in a series that has an archaeological theme and has two mysteries in each novel, one past, one in the present. This one had interesting characters and a decent story, but I did have some problems with it. Many readers are very happy with the series though, so if you haven't tried it, I do recommend it.

An Expert in Murder (2008) by Nicola Upson

Mystery novelist Josephine Tey is the sleuth in this one. I am not sure how much the sleuth in this book resembles the real Josephine Tey (whose real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh), but I did find the story compelling and enjoyed the setting, so I will read more of this series.

Death in the Garden (1995)
by Elizabeth Ironside

A historical novel, with story lines in two different time periods. In 1925, Diana Pollexfen was accused of killing her husband, but found innocent. Sixty years later, her grandniece decides to find out what really happened. Both stories and the way they tie together are excellent, and the writing is very, very good.

Murder is Academic (2002) by Christine Poulson

This is the first book in Poulson's Cambridge Mystery series, starring Cassandra James. After reading Poulson's most recent mysteries (Deep Water and Cold, Cold Heart) I wanted to go back and read her first series. That was a good decision; this was a lovely book, with interesting, believable characters and a great ending. The UK title is Dead Letters.

The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996) by Andrea Camilleri

The second Inspector Montalbano mystery, set in Italy, part of a long-running series. Montalbano finds a cave filled with artifacts and the bodies of two young lovers who have been dead for 50 years. I had read the previous book in the series but had forgotten how much of an independent loner the inspector is. The story is very complex.

White Sky, Black Ice (1999) by Stan Jones

This series stars Nathan Active, an Alaska state trooper, half Inupiat and half white, assigned to the remote village of Chukchi. The story has an interesting and unusual setting and the plotting is fine, but it is the character that I want to know more about. And it is that element that will bring me back to read more books in the series. 

Thunderball (1961) by Ian Fleming

This is the second James Bond book I read this year. It is the first of three novels featuring Ernst Stavro Blofeld, head of the criminal organization SPECTRE. As always, a good read.

Faithful Place (2010) by Tana French

I read this for the European Challenge for Ireland. Set in Dublin, featuring Frank Mackey, a Dublin detective working in the Undercover department. Frank returns to his old neighborhood and the family he left 22 years earlier to investigate a possible crime. Another great story by this author, my favorite of her books ... so far.

The Likeness: Tana French

The Likeness (2008) is the sequel to Tana French’s debut novel, In the Woods. That book featured two detectives in the Murder Squad in Dublin, Ireland, Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox. In The Likeness, Cassie is now working in Domestic Violence at police headquarters, but a unique opportunity arises for her to go undercover. A woman bearing the identification of Lexie Madison is found dead; the woman cannot be Lexie Madison because that was an invented identity that Cassie used when she worked in the Undercover division. The woman is Cassie's double, and Cassie agrees to take her place at her residence, where she lived with four other undergraduates. A complex premise and one that at times was hard to accept.

I like the structure of the Dublin Murder Squad series. Rob Ryan and Cassie are the two main characters in the first novel. Only Cassie is featured in The Likeness (book 2), and she is working primarily with Frank Mackey of Undercover. In the next book, another detective from book 2 is featured. And so on. In The Likeness, there are references back to the previous case, but knowledge of that book is not necessary to enjoy this one.

I read this book almost a year ago, but I still remember how much I liked it. I felt like the story strained my disbelief a bit, but it was so suspenseful and well-written that I was pulled into it. I liked the characters, and that is helpful in this type of book where you spend so much time with them.

The Likeness does have elements I usually dislike. I don't care for really long books. In the edition I read, this one is 466 pages. Long but not atrociously long. I do think it could have been pared down a little, but I enjoyed every page of it.

I have never cared for stories about undercover assignments, even on TV or in films. They are too stressful for me and too many things can go wrong. This one had the extra added stress that Cassie was pretending to be someone that her housemates had been living with for months, whom they interacted with everyday. Yet I still enjoyed the story ...

What I do like about the two books I have read so far in this series is that the character exploration is just as important as solving the mystery. Yes, I cared who did it, but that isn't what kept me reading. I liked all the characters so well, even though they were young, immature, and had their faults, that I did not want any of them to be the culprit.

Cassie narrates this story which makes it even more personal and emotional. Here is a quote:

I don't tell people this, it's nobody's business, but the job is the nearest thing I've got to a religion. The detective's god is the truth, and you don't get much higher or much more ruthless than that. The sacrifice, at least in Murder and Undercover —  and those were always the ones I wanted, why go chasing diluted versions when you could have the breathtaking full-on thing? — is anything or everything you’ve got, your time, your dreams, your marriage, your sanity, your life. Those are the oldest and most capricious gods of the lot, and if they accept you into their service they take not what you want to offer but what they choose.

Good quote from the review at The New Yorker:

Most crime fiction is diverting; French’s is consuming. A bit of the spell it casts can be attributed to the genre’s usual devices—the tempting conundrum, the red herrings, the slices of low and high life—but French is also hunting bigger game. In her books, the search for the killer becomes entangled with a search for self. In most crime fiction, the central mystery is: Who is the murderer? In French’s novels, it’s: Who is the detective?

See other views by Moira at Clothes in Books and John Grant at Goodreads.


-----------------------------

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2009 (orig. publ. 2008)
Length:  466 pages
Format:  Trade paperback
Series:   Dublin Murder Squad, #2
Setting:  Dublin, Ireland
Genre:   Mystery